Kathy Griffin to host CNN New Year's Eve special for third year

The comedian will join Anderson Cooper to ring in 2012 live for the third year running, despite being fired from the gig on several occasions.

Griffin told The Huffington Post that her continued reappearance on the network is "shame-based" and claimed that CNN execs never actually plan on getting rid of her for good.

"It's completely shame-based. Here's the deal: I do New Year's Eve with Anderson. I say something that embarrasses them. They try to get me to apologise. I don't. They make an apology for themselves - sometimes lawyers are called, sometimes they're not," Griffin explained.

"A lot of time passes and they don't want to rehire me, but then as it gets closer to New Year's Eve, they think, 'Well, I guess people do tune in, so...' They realise I'm what's called watercooler television and a ratings-grabber.

"Finally they come to their senses and they say, 'Well, now the more we think about it, not only do we want to rehire her, we actually really want to start promoting this and we want her and Anderson to give interviews and really talk about it'. It started out shame-based and now, quite frankly, I think they're proud of me."

Griffin also joked that she planned to try and embarrass Cooper during the show, adding: "I'm going to try and pants him. That means you pull someone's pants down. He better just duct tape the top of his pants to his skin, otherwise he doesn't stand a chance. I also, of course, will be creating some sort of cat fight between Anderson and Carson Daly and maybe Mike 'The Situation' from Jersey Shore."